Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Same-sex parents' rights expanded

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that both members of a lesbian couple who plan for and raise a child born to either of them should be considered the child's mothers even after their relationship ends.

The court, stepping into largely uncharted legal territory concerning same-sex couples and parenting, issued decisions in three cases, ruling that women whose partners gave birth had parental rights or obligations in all three.

The cases involved a request for child support, a petition to establish parental rights, and a challenge to a lower court ruling issued before a child's birth that the child should have two women listed as parents on her birth certificate.

"We perceive no reason," the court ruled, "why both parents of a child cannot be women."

Courts in about half the states have allowed members of same-sex couples to adopt their partner's children. Monday's decisions considered the separate question of whether the law could require former members of such couples to assume parental rights and obligations.

Being a legal parent "brings with it the benefits as well as the responsibilities," said Justice Joyce Kennard, according to The Associated Press.

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About Me

Food lover, wanna be writer, mother, web designer, music lover, disciple of Christ.
More? The only thing I can say is that I'm very blessed. What else there is to say? Christ bore my sin so that I may stand before the Father in a righteousness that is not my own. I am forgiven, not because of who I am but because of who Christ is and what He has done. I am His, and every day I must strive to walk that out in faith. Each day I fail, but He is quick to forgive when I come to Him in broken hearted repentance. I can't begin to tell you how that amazes me.